“What does that mean?”
“Exactly what I said,” he answered, narrowing his eyes as he glanced back at her. “I’m fine with having the princess. I’ll take you to my bed, treat you like crystal, and love you with everything I have to give you, for as long as you can put up with me. But don’t tempt the beast, sugar, because when he gets hungry, you might get more than you’ve bargained for.”
He watched her expression go blank.
“You love me?” She blinked back at him, so damned innocent it made his guts clench.
“Kelly, I’ve always loved you,” he told her, meaning it. Knowing he meant it. “In one way or the other, you’ve always been a part of me. You’re old enough to decide if you want to settle in with one man, forever, or not. I figure I can give you this summer to decide for sure if I’m that man. If not, then I’ll let you go. It wouldn’t be easy, but I’d do it—”
“But, Rowdy, I’ve always loved you.” She watched him in confusion now, hope and fear in equal parts shadowing her eyes.
He tapped his fingers against the wheel, turning it until it swung into another waterway leading to the private cove. Natches’s family owned the small property that bordered the bay. It was on the back side of undeveloped land, and completely private.
“Yeah, I know you have,” he finally answered as he pulled along the tree-shaded bank and cut the engine.
He didn’t say anything more as he moved beyond the sliding doors, throwing out the heavy front anchor weight before moving to the back and doing the same. As he returned to the living area, he paused by the table.
“I came back for you,” he said, leaning against the small bar, forcing himself to stand away from her. “That’s why Dad was so worried. He knew I came back for you. And the rumors are fact, baby. So don’t push me where the games are concerned.”
“I don’t need you or your dad making decisions for me,” she snapped, her gray eyes flaring in defiance. “If we’re going to try for a relationship, then we’ll meet in the middle. Somehow. But not if you think you can plan my life for me.”
His lips twitched. She was a bundle of fire, that was for damned sure.
“Take off the pants,” he whispered. “Let’s go one step at a time, Kelly. See what your limits are together.”
“Our limits,” she retorted. “Not just mine.”
His lips curled into a frankly sexual, wicked smile.
Kelly licked her lips nervously. The action had the head of his erection pounding with need. Damn, he wanted that little tongue there laving the thick crest, licking around it as though it were a favorite treat.
She bit her lower lip and glanced away before breathing in deeply. Her hands moved, pulling out of the jeans pockets before moving beneath the shirt to unsnap the pants. She kicked off her sandals then pushed the jeans over her h*ps and down her legs.
Within seconds she was laying them over the chair with his shirt before turning back to him.
“You used to tease me like a brazen little hussy,” he whispered, staring at her legs, dying to feel them around his hips. “It was one of the things I looked forward to most when I thought of coming home.” He watched her move toward him, her eyes becoming cloudy with passion as he kept his voice low, carefully teasing.
“You didn’t act as though you enjoyed it,” she murmured as she drew up to him. He jerked as she placed her small hand on his bare chest and ran it slowly down to his tight abdomen. “You stayed away from me.”
He lifted his hand, moving it to her arm, feeling the softness of her skin as he ran his fingers to her elbow and back again.
“If you knew the things I wanted to do to you over the years, you would have run screaming.” He stared down at her uplifted face, his gaze on her lips. The soft, candy pink perfection of those full curves had him aching. “You’re still too damned young for the things I want to do to you. With you.”
“What did you want to do to me, Rowdy?” Her hand slid from his abdomen to his chest again as she stared at him, her eyes reflecting the same hungry need she had shown for years, but it also showed a shadow of fear, of hesitation.
“Everything.” He wasn’t going to lie to her. Now wasn’t the time to hide any part of who or what he was, or the hungers he could unleash on her. If there was a time to be honest with her, it was now. Before the emotional connection that had bonded them for so many years deepened, before there was a chance she could be hurt.
Arousal flashed in her eyes as her breathing became heavier, jerkier. “Give me an example.”
He ran his fingers down her arm until he found her hand, lifted it, pulling her fingers to his lips as he watched her through narrowed eyes. Her gaze flickered to his lips as he licked over the pad of two fingers, her eyelids drooping, pleasure rather than fear filling her gaze.
“You know what I want,” he whispered. “Exactly what I suspect you’re most frightened of now.” He lifted his other hand, smoothing back her hair from her face, his thumb caressing her cheek. “I want to strip you down, love you from head to toe as often as possible, and sometimes…we might not be alone.”
Her breath caught in a hard hitch a second before she jerked away from him, moving across the room, her shoulders stiff and straight as he forced himself to relax, to wait.
“And if we weren’t alone?” Her voice was thin, breathy. He couldn’t tell if it was arousal or fear that inspired it.
“If we weren’t alone, you know the only men I’d ever allow around you,” he told her softly.
“And if it’s not what I want?” She asked, her gray eyes dark, shadowed with indecision.
“Then I won’t press you for it.” He crossed his arms over his chest again as he leaned against the counter. “That doesn’t mean I won’t think about it, that I won’t fantasize the hell out of it. I won’t lie to you, Kelly. Ever. And I won’t have things between us that don’t need to be there.”
“And how do they feel about this?” Arousal lay thick in her voice, as did the fear. “Have the three of you already been making plans to seduce me?”
“There are times when men don’t have to make plans, Kelly.” He kept his voice smooth, even. “They know me, just as well as I know them. No plans will ever be made outside of your presence.”